Boston’s Forgotten Crusade

How an army from south Lincolnshire led by the future King Henry IV sailed from

Boston to join the Teutonic Knights in the 1390 crusade to Prussia and Lithuania

Note on sources

• This presentation is based on the accounts, receipts and expenditure of Henry of Derby - now held in the Public Record Office but printed in 19th century and available on-line.

• The accounts were made up from memoranda, jottings on slips or small rolls of parchment, and receipts for money.

• Accounts were kept by Henry’s Treasurer.

Other medieval sources

• Walsingham’s Ypodigma Neustriae mentions the 1390 siege of Vilnius and the part played by the English forces in its capture.

• John Capgrave, an Augustinian priest at Kings Lynn, mentions the crusades (the 1392 crusade started from Kings Lynn).

• The Prussian chronicles mention the English force – Scriptores rerum Prussicarum (see also John of Posilge, a priest at Eilau who kept a chronicle; letters in the Prussian archives).

Secondary sources

• Illustrations have been taken from the Codex Manesse – an illuminated German manuscript produced about 50 years prior to the 1390, but gives a good idea of courtly and chivalric life in northern Europe at the time.

What were the crusades?

Holy wars against Christendom’s external and internal enemies – in the Holy Land, in Spain, in North Africa and Egypt, in northern Europe against the pagan tribes, internally against heretics, even the Columbus expedition across the Atlantic.

What is a crusade and

what is a “crusader”?

• A crusade must be declared by the Pope in defence of Christian lands or people.

• Crusaders must take a vow to perform military service on the crusade.

• In return they receive an indulgence to forgive their sins.

• While on crusade the crusaders are granted the same privileges and support given to pilgrims (financial support, legal imunity, practical support in terms of food and shelter etc).

• At the end of the crusade the crusader returns to normal life – or goes on another crusade.

The Baltic crusades

Who were the Teutonic Knights?

Tannhäuser in the

habit of the

Teutonic Knights –

from the Codex

Manesse

One of the three great military orders involved in the crusades.

Who were the Teutonic Knights?

• Fighting monks NOT crusaders.

• Followed Augustinian Rule.

• Jerusalem hospital founded by the citizens of Bremen and Lubeck in 1187, and after the fall of Jerusalem re-founded in Acre1190 with vows to tend sick pilgrims and fight “the pagans”.

Who were the Teutonic Knights?

• In 1230 they were asked by the Pope to

undertake a crusade against the pagan

Prussians (a slavic tribe) and eventually

controlled the whole of Prussia and set up their

own quasi-independent state.

• After the fall of Acre in 1291 they moved their

headquarters to first Venice and then to

Marienburg on the River Vistula.

• Eastern expansion from Prussia into Pomerania.

Headquarters of the Tuetonic Knights – Marienberg Castle

(Marienberg was a Hanseatic town)

Who were the Teutonic Knights?

• Grand Commander lived at Marienburg, the Marshal at Konigsberg and the Grand Hospitaller at Elbing – all Hanseatic ports.

• In theory the Grand Commander was a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire and also nominally subject to the Pope and the King of Poland.

• In practice Prussia was an independent state.

NOT Germans vs Slavs

• Teutonic Knights were not exclusively German –spoke German but wrote in Latin, followed the international rule of the Augustinians and recruited throughout Europe, including Poles and Christian Lithuanians.

• Prussians were originally a slavic tribe.

• Medieval society was feudal, not nationalistic.

• Kings of England supported the Teutonic Knights with financial payments and they recruited in England, although did not own any land in England – had close links with the Augustinians.

Teutonic Knights were part of the

Hanseatic League

•Danzig was a Teutonic Knights

port and had strong links with

Boston, Lynn, Hull and York.

•As the Teutonic Knights moved

eastwards the Hanseatic

League expanded.

•Prussia under the Teutonic

Knights was a regional member

of the Hanseatic League.

Who was Henry Earl of Derby?

Who was Henry of Derby?

• Eldest son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Aquitaine and Lancaster and grandson to Edward III.

• Cousin to Richard II (and carried the Sword of Mercy or Curtana at Richard’s coronation).

• In 1390 was twenty five years old, married to Mary de Bohun (at age 15), and had three sons.

• One of the most important princes in England and one of the leading knights.

• Went on several crusades, including two to Prussia.

Henry’s Household

• Henry’s household was modelled on the Royal Household, and the officers followed him everywhere, even to war (feudal obligation).

• Included Steward, Treasurer, Controller, Chamberlain, Chaplain.

Henry’s Household

• Also Clerk of the Kitchen, Marshall of the Hall, Butler, Office of the Saucery, Office of the Poultry, Office of the Scullery (Robert Spaigne), Clerk of the Spicery (included sugar, honey, almonds, dried fruits, even wafers made in Konigsberg), Office of the Chaundry (soap, tallow, candles and torches), Clerk of the Buttery (wine and beer in barrels), Clerk of the Pantry (baking bread, making pies, pastry cooks etc), Clerk of the Marshaley (hay, oats, horse shoes, Clerk of the Great Wardrobe.

• Retinue of knights, esquires, valets, grooms, henchmen (young boys or wards being brought up in the household), pages and many servants.

• Bound by feudal oaths.

Bolingbroke Castle

Henry’s home and main base was Bolingbroke Castle but also had other

properties including Gisours Hall in Boston.

Civil war in Lithuania

• Relations between the Teutonic Knights and the Lithuanian tribes had been warlike.

• But also complex periods of alliance.

• Poland and Lithuania became united in 1386 when Grand Duke Jagello’s son Uladislas converted and married the Queen of Poland Hedwig.

• This alliance was opposed by Jagello’s cousin Vitold (Prince of Samogitia) who appealed to the Teutonic Knights for help.

• In 1390 the Teutonic Knights planned an invasion of Lithuania and probably appealed for international help which came from England, France and the Low Countries.

• Henry of Derby decided to join the crusade and mustered his feudal force.

Grand Duke Jagello

The English force

• Great number of men with English surnames –

c12 knights with esquires and valets.

• Troop of bowman and other military attendants.

• Household servants - Stables, Kitchen, Buttery,

Pantry, Poultry, Falconry.

• Private chapel.

• Heralds.

• John of Posilge estimates the army to be about

300, but this may include men recruited locally.

Musicians

• Six minstrels, a

trumpeter, five

other musicians.

• Acted as a kind of

military band.

• Employed many

other musicians

locally in Prussia

Surnames in the accounts

• The officers, esquires and valets were drawn from the towns, manors and villages of the Bolingbroke demesne.

• English surnames can be divided into three parts: those names after a place (Willoughby, Bolingbroke, Melbourne); those named after an occupation (Baker, Cage Maker); those who have true surnames (Cudworth, Maunsell).

• Many names are recorded in the accounts and need further study.

Examples

• Thomas Swinford – the accounts refer to horses brought from Kettlethorpe manor.

• Peter Bucton – referred to in a poem by Chaucer.

• Ralph Rochford, a Lincolnshire knight.

• Henry’s auditor was Thomas de Wombewell (there is a Wombwell House in Fishtoft).

• Henry’s clerk of the Office of the Scullery was Robert Spaigne.

• Occasionally among the German names is an English surname – probably an English resident in Danzig.

How did they get there?

• Originally planned to go overland but met difficulties negotiating a way through Europe and decided to go directly by sea.

• Two large vessels were commissioned, probably English but with German (Hanseatic?) captains.

The ships were hulls and were fitted up with cabins

and various other accommodation including a chapel.

Initial orders and commissions

• Appointment of Richard de Kyngston, Archdeacon of Hereford, as “Treasurer for War” signed on 6th May 1390.

• Purchase of provisions –large quantities of wine, beer and food; chattels and utensils; horses and cattle - all of which were directed to Boston.

• Deadline for departure was the feast of St Margaret (20th July).

• Henry’s ships left from “Chopehire” – probably Skirbeck.

• Solid land as carts took provisions to it.

• Could “Chopehyr” be a medieval spelling of “Shropshire”?

The voyage

• The ships crossed the North Sea and passed Copenhagen

• Played board games on the voyage.

• On 8th August three men were landed on the Pomeranian coast at Leba.

• Henry and a small party landed a little further on at Rixhoft where they immediately had a meal.

• The ships went on to Danzig.

The army forms up at Danzig

• Henry travelled from Rixhoft to Danzig by horse, and stayed in the city from 10th to 13th August at the house of Lord de Burser.

• Lancaster Herald took letters from Henry to the Grand Master at Marianburg (everywhere he went heralds proceeded him to announce his arrival and arrange food and lodging).

• The army disembarked and began to form up.

The army moves forward

• The English force crossed the Vistula and proceeded to Konigsburg arriving on the 16th August (some of the stores and provisions went by water in flat boats).

• Thirteen carts were required to convey Henry’s stores and armour.

• Eighteen hired Prussian carts took provisions to the Castle of Insterburg for after the campaign.

Progress through Prussia

• 18th August the prince slept at Cremitten,

passed through Tapiau, and had dinner at

the castle of Norkitten (see picture below).

Into the Wilderness

• The English army now approached the “Wyldrenesse” or wilderness – a no-mans-land that divided Prussia from Lithuania.

• This was the great forest today known as the Grauden Forest.

Fighting begins

• 24th August the English crossed the Memel river.

• 25th August they received information that the

Lithuanian leader Skirgal was ahead of them,

and they decided on a surprise attack.

• Sunday 28th August Henry’s forces attacked the

Lithuanians and forced them to retreat. Sir John

Loudeham (Leadenham?) was killed in the

battle. Three Lithuanian dukes, eleven boyars

and 200 horses were captured.

Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital

1530 drawing

Vilnius was strongly fortified with outer wooden defences and an inner castle on the hill built of stone.

Capture of Vilnius

• Three armies, including the English force,

stormed the city, which fell on 4th September

1390.

• Both English and German chronicles say that

the Lincolnshire force was crucial to the capture

of the city, the English bowmen were

devastating, and an English banner was the first

to be planted on the walls of the captured city

(by a yeoman retainer of Lord Bourchier).

Siege of the stone fortress

• Vilnius was looted and burned, many

prisoners were taken, but despite a siege

the inner stone fortress of Vilnius was not

captured.

• Sickness, lack of gunpowder, onset of bad

weather made the forces give up the siege.

• Henry and his force returned to Konigsberg

which they reached on 20th October 1390.

Pilgrimage to church of

St Katherine of Alexandria at Arnau

Four months at Konigsberg

• Henry’s stay in

the city included

Christmas and

New Year.

Jousting and hunting

• Henry and his party took part in a programme of tournaments and hunting parties.

• Professor Riley-Smith has suggested the entertaining was part of a knightly “package tour” and one of the chief motivations for knights to go on the Baltic crusades.

Receiving gifts

Henry continually presented with gifts including horses and hawks.

Receiving gifts

• Henry gave in return many fur robes and other gifts including jewels, wax, spices and linen.

• These gift-giving events would have been ritual occasions.

• Music featured heavily with minstrels, fiddlers and other musicians hired locally (in addition to his own band of musicians).

Feasting

• The English attended feasts and gave feasts, including roast peacocks.

Chaucer’s knight is described as taking part in the crusade against

Lithuania and placed at the head of the “board” (feasting table) in the

celebrations that followed.

Hanging up shields

• One of the many duties of the herald was to paint shields with coats of arms and leave them hanging up in the castles that were visited.

• Do any of these shields still exist?

Danzig

• In February Henry left Konigsberg and arrived in Danzig (principle city of the Hanseatic League in Prussia) on 15th February 1391.

Six weeks in Danzig

• Henry stayed with merchant Klaus Gottesknecht, many of his party were lodged at the castle-palace of the Bishop of Leslau just outside Danzig (the castle had to be fitted up).

• Mention in the accounts of English residents in the city providing goods and services to Henry (ie John Bever).

• Henry went on pilgrimages to four churches within Danzig and left offerings of money and gained “indulgences”.

• Henry spent Easter (26th March 1391) in Danzig with festivities and gift-giving.

Return to Boston

• Two ships were chartered under Prussian masters but with pilots from Boston.

• Carpenters created cabins for the men, stables for the animals and cages for the hawks.

• 31st March Henry embarked for the voyage home –landing in Hull (a town with strong Hanseatic connections) and sending his baggage by coastal vessels to Boston.

• Henry Catour died on the voyage back and may explain why Henry returned via Hull – Catour was buried at Hull and masses said for his soul.

• Henry crossed from Hull to Barton and travelled south to Bolingbroke Castle, stopping for supper at Caister en route.

• His baggage was carted from Boston to Bolingbroke.

Richard II banishing Henry

Coronation of Henry IV

Future Work

• Research – original and printed

sources.

• Fieldwork looking for evidence.

• Archaeological investigation.

• International co-operation.

Local evidence

• Chaucer was a friend of Henry of Derby and was often at Bolingbroke Castle.

• In the Canterbury Tales the Knight is described as going on crusade to Prussia.

• Was Chaucer’s Knight based on a south Lincolnshire knight who went on the 1390 crusade?

1410 manuscript of the Knight’s Tale

Local evidence

Site of Gisors or Gishours Hall – Boston home of Henry of

Derby.

Local evidence

• Double headed eagle – misericord in the chancel of the Stump.

• Dated to 1390 – the year of the crusade.

• Is the head on the left a portrait of Henry of Derby? – compare with coronation portrait.

The double-headed eagle was a heraldic emblem of both the

Teutonic Knights and the Hanseatic League – for instance Otto von Botenlauben sold his lands in the Kingdom of Jerusalem to

the Teutonic Knights and returned to Germany

Where is the site of the

Augustinian “Friary”?

Find the Augustinian Friary and the Hanseatic Steelyard may be close by

FINISH